Congress passes temporary funding extension to flood insurance program

Capping off a dramatic few weeks in Washington, D.C., the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate have passed a continuing resolution that will fund the government through Dec. 20 — more than a month after Election Day, and just weeks before the new Congress is scheduled to be sworn in and the presidential election certified.

The continuing resolution (CR) includes temporary reauthorization for the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). This is a priority for housing stakeholders, since a failure to reauthorize the program could lead to ceding control of certain land-use policies and the cessation of some mortgage lending activities. That warning was previously issued by government researchers and lawmakers in a Senate hearing last year.

President Joe Biden is expected to sign the measure into law prior to the Oct. 1 funding deadline. Congress is entering recess that will end after Election Day on Nov. 5.

“Our nation continues to face a housing supply and affordability crisis as well as the immediate threat this week of a major hurricane in the Southeast,” Bob Broeksmit, president and CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), said in a statement.

“The passage of this three-month CR would keep essential housing programs at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Agriculture (USDA) running without interruption and would also avoid a lapse of the NFIP, which would leave millions of Americans at risk by disrupting the purchase of flood insurance in communities across our country.”

Members of Congress will now head back to their home states for the final swing of the election campaign, in which the control of the presidency, House and Senate are up for grabs.

Congress has repeatedly faced issues in reauthorizing NFIP, sometimes waiting until the 11th hour or even letting it lapse before ultimately reauthorizing it with retroactive effect.

Some lawmakers have expressed a desire to overhaul the program so it would not be prone to the political machinations that accompany spending decisions, but senators previously identified several roadblocks that make this prospect unlikely.

But the promise of another funding battle before the holidays has become something of a tradition, and lawmakers told NBC News that they believe an “omnibus” spending package — typically loaded up with priorities of both parties and passed near the end of the year — is likely to happen. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) has vowed to avoid such an occurrence.

“We are not going to return to the Christmas omnibus spending tradition, and that’s the commitment I’ve made to everyone,” Johnson told reporters after the passage of the continuing resolution on Wednesday.

But he also stopped short of promising that he would not entertain such a vote. “We’ve worked very hard to break that tradition […] and we’ll see what happens in December,” he said after being pressed by reporters.

The election results are expected to dictate the direction of December’s funding debate, since an agreement by Dec. 20 will set the stage for both the new Congress and the incoming president’s potential agenda.